Miles apologises for hospital’s deadly failings as Crisafulli cries cover-up

A week out from election day, the two men vying to be Queensland’s premier for the next four years were at pains to claim underdog status on Saturday.

And, a day after the release of a report into deadly failings at Redland Hospital, Premier Steven Miles offered an apology, as Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, campaigning in Redlands, cried cover-up.

On Friday, Queensland Health released a report – which Miles commissioned in 2020 as health minister – into lapses of care at Redland Hospital, where cancer screening processes for more than 1500 patients from 2012 to 2018 missed early warning signs for bowel cancer.

While initial endoscopies cleared patients of bowel cancer, about a dozen patients received positive diagnoses in later testing. Several have since died.

Queensland Health accepted all 37 recommendations in the report and said it had already implemented three-quarters, with “the others under way”.

Crisafulli said the government sat on the report for days while parliament was still sitting last month.

Premier Steven Miles campaigning with Tom Smith in Bundaberg on Saturday morning.Credit: Cameron Atfield

“The cover-up was callous. It was calculated. It’s absolutely unforgivable,” he said.

“Worse than that, it shows a government that is prepared to put its political survival ahead of patient survival.”

Miles said he had “some awareness” of the case when he was health minister.

“It occurred over a very long period of time – successive governments – [and] those thought responsible were no longer in Queensland Health,” he said.

“We did order that investigation, which now has discovered those suboptimal clinical outcomes.

“I’d like to personally apologise to the families of those who have been affected and assure them that Queensland Health will work with them going forward.”

On the suggestion the government stalled the report’s findings, Queensland Health Director-General Michael Walsh said a full copy of the 1000-page report has not yet been provided to the minister for health and ambulance services because the government is in caretaker mode.

“Queensland Health received the report on September 9. No one in government received the report on September 9,” Walsh said.

“The parts of the report that are available online to the public are the only parts of the report that have been provided to government.”

Analysis of the report by Queensland Health identified 73 patients whose care was below acceptable clinical standards, and 12 patients who may have lived longer if their diagnosis and care had been established earlier.

“Investigators had to consider more than 3000 patients whose cases were reviewed in 2020 and examined hundreds of them in detail ... The clinical analysis of the report and patient records was undertaken as quickly as possible,” Walsh said.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and Deputy Jarrod Bleijie slammed the Labor government’s “cover up” of the Redlands Hospital report.Credit: Catherine Strohfeldt

Spurred on by new polling that showed a marked improvement in his personal popularity, Miles had some extra spring in his step as he campaigned in Bundaberg on Saturday morning, before flying back to Brisbane in the afternoon.

But as he announced funding for the Angels Community Group, which helps feed the disadvantaged, Miles seemed determined to retain the title of underdog.

“Clearly, this election was always going to be very, very challenging for Labor, particularly against an opponent so determined not to stray off script, so determined to hide his plans from Queenslanders,” he said.

“But even the little bit of exposure that he’s experienced in the last few weeks has shown Queenslanders how deceitful he is.”

Bundaberg is Labor’s most marginal seat, won by MP Tom Smith by just nine votes in 2020.

Miles seemed jovial as he spoke of Labor’s chances of retaining the most marginal seat in Queensland.

“I’ve told Tom he’s got to win by 12 votes this time, and I reckon he can do it,” he said.

Premier Steven Miles was all smiles in Bundaberg as he popped into a Dymocks bookshop on Saturday.Credit: Cameron Atfield

“We’re not paying for a landslide. Just 12 votes. Fifteen is fine. Anything above 20, too much. ”

Meanwhile, Crisafulli also claimed the underdog title, saying his party started “behind the eight-ball”.

“We have to win over a dozen seats plus, and hold those that we have,” he said.

“We have to go against the might of the expenditure caps, which heavily favour the Labor Party, and we have to go against MPs who are de-branding to run away from the record of their government.

“That makes us the underdog.”

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